(Press-Register file)Mobile's Ladd-Peebles Stadium is shown in an aerial photography made during a recent Senior Bowl.Jacksonville, Fla., officials are still hoping to lure the Senior Bowl from Mobile, despite the fact that the game's board of directors voted last week to stop talking with other cities about moving the contest.

The college football all-star game, which has been played in Mobile since 1951, is owned by the nonprofit Mobile Arts and Sports Association. That organization's board voted Thursday to sign a contract with Mobile's Ladd-Peebles Stadium for three years, with two options that could extend the deal for as many as six more years.

The decision came after the board had voted to hire consultants to look at moving the game to a larger market. Jacksonville leaders offered the Senior Bowl as much as $650,000 a year for five years to move to the northeast Florida city.

The contract the MASA board signed with Ladd includes a buyout clause that would let the game leave Mobile at any time for $40,000 or less.

Senior Bowl officials have said that clause is "irrelevant" because of the decision to discontinue discussions about moving the game to other cities. But the Florida Times-Union reported Saturday that the clause left officials in Jacksonville still hopeful.

"I'm still not convinced that the Senior Bowl is there for the long haul," said Michael Bouda, director of sports and entertainment for the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission. "I don't see Jacksonville stopping from trying to get it."